While I don’t try to influence my written student evaluations — other than by teaching well — I have occasionally told my classes that cryptically negative comments, such as, “You suck,” while perhaps true, are not particularly helpful. I have then clarified that it’s perfectly all right for them to write that I suck, but that if they want me to stop sucking, they had better tell me, with some degree of specificity, just how I suck.

Here are the other articles:

Taking a Small Step Toward More Assessments, by Sophie Sparrow (Franklin Pierce), p.1

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Comments

I enjoyed Stewart Harris's article about evaluations. Here are some of my practices. First, I tell the students how seriously I read their comments. I think that prompts them to put more effort into the evals. Second, several times during the semester, I have them vote on the usefulness of material we just covered -- whether they recommend "keeping it" or "chucking it." If it doesn't work for them, toss it, and next time try some other material on whatever point you're covering. That doesn't mean watering down my standards; it just means that the material has to meet my standards and theirs. Third, in my course packet I have included a synopsis of the usual criticisms I get from students. It helps set their expectations, helps them decide whether to drop my course, and forces me to think about why I get certain criticisms over and over.